An Introduction to Field Recording

Field recording!

The art of finding a grassy field and hitting play and record on your cassette recorder. Is that what it is? Recording fields?

Maybe it’s recording energy fields around animated entities? Maybe it’s eavesdropping on ghosts. Field recording is an insanely interesting hobby, if you’re me. And for some, a very lucrative career.

This is the first in my Field recording series: an introduction to field recording.

In this episode, I’ll fully explain what field recording is, and I’ll touch on all the different types of gear you’d expect to find in a field recordist’s kit.

So what even is field recording?

Here’s what the dictionary has to say: A permanent copy of sounds or images made outside a controlled, studio environment, typically with portable equipment.

Here’s what Wikipedia says: Field recording is the term used for an audio recording produced outside a recording studio, and the term applies to recordings of both natural and human-produced sounds.

It also applies to sound recordings like electromagnetic fields or vibrations using different microphones like a passive magnetic antenna for electromagnetic recordings or contact microphones.

For underwater field recordings, a field recordist uses hydrophones to capture the sounds and/or movements of whales, or other aquatic organisms. These recordings are very useful for sound designers.

Ah yes. Sound designers. That’s a great career if you know what you’re doing.

So basically, if you are outside of a controlled environment—like a studio—and you’re recording sounds—any sounds—then you are field recording. You’re recording audio in the field.

You’re not recording fields.

I mean, a field REPORTER doesn’t stand in a field all day and comment on what’s going on there.

Grabbing a portable recorder and a mic or two, or a portable recorder with built in mics and collecting audio from anywhere outside your studio is field recording.

But it’s more than that for me. I’m more than a super mega nerd. For me it’s capturing a preserving an actual slice of time as it happened.

During the moment, while you’re recording, you’re experiencing the moment in real-time as it’s happening. But when you preserve that recording, you’ve now provided a window back through time.

You’re preserving time. Hence the name of my little channel here. The Time Preservation Society.

And you can revisit that time just as it happened whenever you want. Because you’re the curator of moments.

Especially when you record with a stereo pair of mics or, binaural mics, or even ambisonic mics.

Because when you go back and listen 35 years later to that ambisonics recording of your mother or father or grandparents talking in their old living room, you’re instantly transported back in time.

Because for me, I remember the acoustics of a room—any room. But especially old rooms from my past—from 3000 years ago. The particular bounce of certain frequencies off the wall, off that unique picture frame. Off the old table you ate dinner at 450 times.

When you’re in the moment, it’s just an ordinary mundane day. Nothing special about it. Until you’ve years ago lost those people and places, and decide to go visit them again in full stereo, binaural, or ambisonics immersion.

That room reverb is 100% recognizable and does most of the heavy lifting to transport you back there. Even without anyone speaking.

Ok. Enough of the potentially sad stuff—although the principle stands.

I’ve been field recording for a long time. I first started dabbling recording everything back in 1992, which was The Last of the Mohicans and Army of Darkness ago.

But field recording is so vast. It’s capturing the sound of a particular creaking branch as it sways in the breeze, or the way the wind hits a window. Or the sound of a tree falling in the forest—which is totally silent unless you were there. Or the rumble of a bridge as cars pass over top.

Or the sound of a babbling brook as the waters wind around a bend. Or the sound crows at dusk. The roar of an ocean wave. The sounds of whales singing.

The sound of children playing. Of an old creepy Jack in the box. Maybe a creaky rocking chair or the hustle and bustle of a busy outdoor market.

The sound of an explosive fart from a wicked fat guy.

Maybe you want to collect impacts like an axe hitting a log, or a rock hitting an empty oil drum. Or a window being broken. And then layer them all together to create a new drum sound. That’s sound design for music.

All of these sounds can be preserved or woven into a library of sound effects to be used in movies or dramatic podcasts or video games or more.

Whether you’re recording a university lecture or the sound of a toilet flushing, you’re field recording and you’re preserving time.

So how does one go about getting into field recording?

Well, money. It’s money. It’s so much money. It’s why-do-my-interests-always-cost-so-much-money kind of money.

But you can start relatively cheaply.

I’m going to put away some of the jokes for now so I can really get to work explaining the following section without distractions. So here are the droids you’re looking for.

Gear

All-in-one recorders:

A very quick and cheap way to get into field recording, and how I got into it was by purchasing a small stereo, battery powered digital recorder. These can vary in price from $100 to $1500.

I started years ago with a Zoom H1. I still have it. It’s a good little recorder. Light and small and records in stereo and is about $100.

It features a stereo cardioid electret condenser X-Y capsule that allows you to record hours of field recording in stereo and it fits right in your pocket.

We will cover what X-Y and other configurations mean in the next instalment in the series.

You can also upgrade within the same Zoom brand by getting something like the Zoom H5 or the H6.

This is a larger a stereo field recorder but adds some additional functionality by giving you XLR inputs to accompany that X-Y capsule. You can get one for around $300.

Just about the highest end all-in-one pocket stereo digital field recorder would be the Sony D-100. This recorder is no longer in production but you can still find them used.  The built-in mics and the preamps on the D-100 are amazing. Very quiet. Now you’re talking about over $1000 used if you can find one.

But it has no XLR ins and while it’s a fantastic pocket stereo recorder, it’s very limited to just being a pocket stereo recorder. But it’s the best one ever made for that type of functionality.

Recorders:

From there, you can start getting into much higher end recorders. Recorders that do not come with microphones built in.

Sound devices MixPre recorders are about as high end as you can get for field recording purposes. There is, of course, even fancier and better recorders than the MixPre series, but they’re more designed for location sound for film sets and the like.

But for field recording purposes, you can’t get better, IMO, than the Mixpre series, which starts at about $900 USD.

In the higher end Zoom field recorder line, you could go with any F-series recorder except the F1 and F2 which are pieces of shit.

The Zoom F3 is relatively featureless but it will record in 32 bit float with two XLR ins and is around $300. It’s a nice compact mic-less but potentially mic-FULL recorder.

The F6 has all kinds of great features and 6 simultaneous ins for around $800.

There’s all kinds of settings and bells and whistles that you can decide on when choosing a field recorder, so it’s a good idea to not only figure out what you’ll need to begin, but also think it through and figure out what you WILL need in the future.

Try to future-proof your gear purchases, if you can.

As for me, I currently own a Zoom H1, the newer Zoom H1n, the Zoom H5, the Sound Devices MixPre 3 II and the MixPre 6 II.

Now on to Microphones.

Microphones:

There are many types of microphones that belong in a field recording kit.

Omni electret condenser microphones are very popular for stereo ambience recording. They have an omnidirectional polar pattern which means they pick up equally from all around it. Omnis are best used spaced out in an A-B configuration when stereo field recording. Once again, we’ll get into mic configurations in the next video.

Popular field recording omni mics are LOM BasicUchos or Usi Pros, or Clippy EM272s, or even the DPA 4060s and they range in price from $100 to thousands.

I have pairs of Clippys and LOM BasicUchos.

Small diaphragm Cardioid condenser mics have a specific heart shaped polar pattern that project outwards like a flashlight beam. It’s a little more complex than that, but I’m keeping it simple for this introduction video.

A pair of them oriented in an X-Y or ORTF configuration is best for these mics.

While the small diaphragm versions are usually a first choice due to easy portability, large diaphragm versions have also been used with great success.

Popular field recording small diaphragm cardioid condenser microphones are Line Audio CM4s, Sennheiser 8040s, or the Schoeps CMC 6 U system.

The prices range from $100 to thousands.

I have some pairs of Line Audio CM4s, some Slate ML-2s, some deity mics, and probably some other ones kicking around here somewhere.

Shotgun mics are usually super or hyper cardioid mics with a tighter pickup beam that cancels out sounds that come from the sides thanks to its interference tube. These mics are not normally used in stereo pairs but are instead used to capture mono sounds for better isolation in an outdoor environment.

They can also be used indoors but care must be taken to prevent phase issues due to acoustic bounce in smaller spaces.

Shotgun mics are particularly good at picking out human voices—which is why they’re used heavily on film sets.

Popular shotgun mics are the Sennheiser MKH-416, Schoeps CMIT 5U, or the Røde NTG-3.

Prices for popular shotgun mics range from $300 to thousands.

I have a Sennheiser MKH-416 and a Deity S-Mic 2.

Dynamic mics are usually cardioid or hyper cardioid polar patterns. They’re directional. And they’re low powered but can handle loud sounds. Dynamic mics can usually handle an insane amount of sound pressure.

They would not be optimal for stereo ambience recording in, say, a forest, but would be excellent in, say, a noisy factory.

They can be used in stereo pairs in an X-Y or ORTF configuration for noisy stereo applications or used as single mono mics to capture gunshots or building demolitions.

Popular dynamic field recording mics are the Shure SM57 or the SM58.

Dynamics can range from $100 to more than a thousand. But really, SM57s are all you really need and they’re $100.

I have SHURE SM57s and 58s, and an SM7B and ElectroVoice RE-320 and probably more.

But I’ll only ever use the 57s in the field.

There is no field recording application that ribbon microphones would be the usual choice, since they are notoriously delicate and even a slight breeze or incorrect non-upright storage can damage them.

I don’t own a ribbon mic. I’m scared of them. I can use the Townsend Labs L22 Sphere mic to emulate ribbons.

There are figure 8 microphones that can be used in a mid-side recording configuration which we will touch on in another video—and microphones that use several of the previously mentioned microphones together as combo mics.

There are combo mics that offer several mics in one like XY mics (two cardioid small diaphragm condenser microphones in one), binaural mics which are two omni mics inside a dummy head with dummy ears, and ambisonic mics, which are 4 sub cardioid microphones arranged in a tetrahedral array. Sub cardioid means a super wide beam.

A Popular X-Y microphone is the Audio Technica BP-4025 for about $700.

A Popular binaural mic is the AWI SR3D for about $300 USD.

A popular ambisonic mic is the Sennheiser Ambeo VR for about $1400.

I have a couple of AWI SR3D binaural mics and they’re fabulous.

But there are other types of mics as well. Weird and interesting mics.

Interesting Mics:

Contact mics are an excellent way of detecting  sound vibrations through objects or hard surfaces. You can stick a contact mic onto, say, a pocket watch and listen to the ticks as translated from vibrations to sound.

They will not pick up vibrations through the air as regular mics do. So this makes isolating a precise sound much easier when recording.

Popular contact mics are the JRF C-Series Pro,  or the AKG C411. These are best used in stereo pairs for a really fantastic stereo effect.

Contact mics range in price from $50 to $400 or more.

I have a pair of handmade JRF c-Series Pro contact mics that I use regularly.

Hydrophones are contact mics for under water. They’re waterproof mics that listen for vibrations traveling through the water. These are the mics that scientists use to listen to whales or to hear other underwater events.

Popular hydrophones are the Aquarian Audio H2D or JRF D-series hydrophone and the prices range from $100 to $500 or more.

Surprisingly, I don’t own any hydrophones. But I’d like to in the future. And after I give this almanac to my younger self, I can buy all of the hydrophones.

There are electromagnetic sensors that detect electromagnetic energy fields and convert them to audio.

A Popular electromagnetic mic is the LOM ElektroUsi which, if you can secure a set, would run you about $30, but other brands can cost much more.

I own a pair of LOM Elektrousis. They’re great.

There are Geophones. Geophones are seismic event detectors that measure seismic activity. It can record even the faintest vibrations in all kinds of mediums—including soil. They tend to accentuate the extreme low end of the frequency spectrum.

A popular Geophone is the LOM Geofón which if you can secure one, would run about $175 each.

I’ll be doing a review on the LOM Geofón in the coming weeks because I do have one here ready to review.

Finally there are parabolic dish microphones. These are the spy microphones that can listen in to pinpoint sounds from much further away. They actually do what many people think shotgun mics do but don’t actually do.

However, since the wavelengths of low frequencies are massive (you’d need a dish larger than 60 feet in diameter to hear 20Hz) a parabolic mic only picks up the mids and highs. So the quality of the audio from a parabolic dish mic is lessened, since the lows aren’t captured.

You can find decent parabolic mics for as little as $200 or as much as $2000.

I don’t currently own a parabolic dish microphone.

There are other, more obscure mics out there but I’m just sticking with the popular types for this video.

And those are your main gear options. But there are other things. Little things that you might need.

Cables and clips and shockmounts and wind protection (like blimps or baby ball gags or furries), batteries and power packs, and sticky tack, and tape, and tripods, and dry bags and, headphones, and a good quality audio bag to put it all in.

All of these little things might be needed in your kit—depending on where you go and what you’re doing.

But the worst thing to have happen (other than losing all your gear down a sink hole or glacier chasm), is forgetting to pack something that you’ll need.

So that’s some of your basic field recording gear options.

How to use all this stuff and why is for another video in this series.

Some people like collecting sounds as a hobby. Some do it professionally. If you get very good at field recording, you could capture sounds that many would, AND DO, pay for.

A clean multi-microphone recording of a building being demolished is worth money.

A clean and isolated recording of a loon on a still lake on a windless morning is worth money.

A rainless thunder without human sound-pollution is worth money.

There’s all kinds of options for making money collecting sounds. And working on a high quality niche sound library is a worthwhile effort. I’m doing that currently and will release it as soon as I think it’s done.

TV shows, movies, video games, commercials, YouTube channels… all of these endeavors need high quality sound effects all the time. Why not provide them?

I love field recording. I love the concept. The creativity, the time preservation, the sounds, the process, the editing, the camaraderie among other field recordists.

It’s a really awesome thing to be into, if you’re anything like me. And you are, or else you wouldn’t be reading this far.

In the coming months, I’m going to be going pretty deep into field recording in this series.

From mic configurations to when to use which mic where, to packing your sound bag, to editing your sounds, to using the UCS (Universal Category System) to categorize your sounds, and all kinds of other neat stuff.

So be on the lookout for more videos in this series.

And May the force be with you.

Bye now

End Transmission